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Air-Tite Archives
The Air-Tite Archives is a location in Rapture Central Computing of Minerva's Den. The archives rented safe storage for the possessions of Rapture's citizens, using an automated pneumatic system. History During Minerva's Den's heyday, the archives was one of the most secure places the people of Rapture could have kept their personal belongings. Once an account was opened, citizens could drop off or request their items and valuables in secure canisters using one of the many Pneumo tubes routed through the archives. At some point before the Rapture Civil War, Ryan Security rifled through many of the citizen's belongings and records trying to uncover incriminating evidence against certain "rebels" and "radicals" in Rapture, much to the dismay of the Archives' employees.Audrey Hesselgren's Audio Diary: Prying Eyes However, like the rest of Rapture, it fell into disrepair since the Rapture Civil War. ''Minerva's Den'' At first, the main door to Air-Tite Archives is inoperative due to it having been short-circuited. To open it the player must find the Electro Bolt Plasmid hidden in McClendon Robotics. At the very end of the area, in the office of the overseer, is the Gravity Well Plasmid which the player must acquire in order to reach the Operations level of Minerva's Den. Entrance The entrance hall leads straight to the Lobby of the Archives. This hallway has the facility's restrooms. The hall contains several armchairs, red barrels, a Bot Shutdown Panel and a Security Camera that guards the area. A Vita-Chamber was set up here during the early stages of the Civil War. On one of the armchairs lies an Audio Diary response made by C. M. Porter to Sofia Lamb's invitation to the Rapture Family, alongside her book. Restrooms The two separate restrooms are set to the right when facing the entrance. The "Gents" are to the left and "Dames" to the right. Both have suffered major damage with leaking walls and ceilings, debris and grime on the floors. The lights are burned out and a large hole in between the restrooms gives a view of either side. Depending on which restroom Subject Sigma enters first, a Splicer will enter the other restroom and attack him through the hole in the wall. Two Health Stations are set up in each bathroom. Lobby The lobby connects to the Archives' various locations where citizens could get information and book appointments. The corpse of a Lancer Big Daddy rests on the stairs from the entrance. Straight ahead are the counters with two torn apart doors going to an 'Employees Only' area on each side. In front of the counter is a victim succumbed to Reed Wahl's wrath that serves as an ADAM-filled corpse for extraction. In the middle of the room is a leveled waiting area, flooded from the leaking glass ceiling. On the right side from the entrance is a El Ammo Bandito vending machine and a stairway to the New Accounts office. On the left side is a Circus of Values machine, a Gene Bank and a set of stairs — with a Health Station — to a small balcony overlooking the waiting area, with a window looking over the ocean, and a Little Sister Vent nearby. When first approaching the window, a Big Sister will swim by. New Accounts The New Accounts office is located upstairs on the right from the entrance in the lobby. Here, employees were tasked with providing services and information for new potential customers. A Turret is guarding the entrance and a window gives a peak into the small room from the hallway. Papers and files are scattered all over the floor with several of the machines still collecting and processing data. A Sea Slug in a jar can be found on the desk, nicknamed Devin. One of the Vacuum Bots sits malfunctioned in the room and breaking it will give the player the Gene Tonic Booze Hound along with some Gin & Whiskey. One of the printing machines is used as a surface containing a large amount of alcohol, which can be consumed by the player to test their new Gene Tonic. Looking out the window will trigger a Big Sister to glide past the glass. Canister Retrieval Canister Retrieval's stairway is across from the lobby, past the processing windows. Canister Retrieval was where canisters filled with a citizen's goods and valuables were received and registered. From here, they were transported to the Warehouse to be stored. The area is guarded by a Security Camera, as privacy and security were a top priority at the Archives. At the end of the stairway are a Bot Shutdown Panel and registration machines. The canisters were retrieved on a lower leveled platform through a specialized branch of Pneumo Tubes (By Pham Pneumo) that utilized the Jet-Postal system and Pneumo Lines, built specifically to cater to the Archives' canister processing, and end into mail trolleys below the openings. These four Pneumo Tube types are posted along either wall beside four additional Pneumo Tubes. By the time of Sigma's visit, the lower area is slowly flooding from a leak in the glass roof. On the wall containing a security camera are two additional Pneumo Tubes and a control panel with a few Dollars and an EVE Hypo. When Sigma goes up the stairs, he finds two Splicer searching through the Mall Tubes, one of which seems to have found C.M. Porter's audio diary: How to Get Ahead, that has been stacked along a First Aid Kit. Basement Workshop This small workshop is downstairs to the left of the stairway to the Canister Retrieval. If something in the facility was damaged, it was sent here for repairs. The area is filled up with water coming from Canister Retrieval upstairs. The workshop is separated into two rooms, one of which is locked. The first room has a Health Station, a desk with some supplies and Brigid Tenenbaum's audio diary: A Possible Solution. On the wall to the right of the desk is an exposed wall, which Sigma can utilize to hack the door control on the other side and allow the Sigma enter. A work space on a higher level is left untouched by the water below and it is here that Sigma finds a Shotgun. Some 00 Buck can be found sitting in the storage room on a shelf through a hole in the wall and can be retrieved with Telekinesis. After equipping the gun, Splicers will come running down stairs. Warehouse Down the hall across for the Basement Workshops, the Warehouse was a storage warehouse that stored and secured the canisters and valuables of Rapture's denizens. Upon entering the warehouse area is an antechamber used as a locker room to shelve the employee's belongings and supplies, and to store unused mail trolleys. From this room, Sigma is locked out of the storage warehouse and must go down a set of stairs to a small storage room. Here, two Splicers can be found looting what remains of the storage room, with one Splicer seemingly to be in a trance. The Audio Diary, Thinker Input 1, can be found standing on a crate and retrieved. On the other end of the room behind the shelves, an overturned safe can be unlocked by Sigma. In order to assess the storage warehouse, Sigma must hack the door's control panel through an opening in the ceiling. Once opened, a Gatherer's Garden can be seen down the hall. The storage warehouse is a two floor facility, the bottom floor serving as the actual storage of the canisters and the upper floor for retrieval, processing, documenting, transfer, and storage of the canisters. On the upper level hallway are ticket machines spewing out information and code on strands of paper that litter the floor. Past the hallway is a room with more of the specialized "Pham Pneumo" tubes, with the massive Pneumo Lines filling the ceiling above. The room also contains computers and other machinery to document the input and output of canisters and its contents. A conveyor-like machine would have been used by employees to sort through specific canisters per request and permission of its owner. Unfortunately, as revealed in the audio diary "Subversives in the Archives", Ryan Security retrieved and rummaged through the belongings of many citizens who had entrusted the Archives' with their valuables. The office for Archives' manager is also on this level and can be reached by reaching the end of the hall on the lower level and up a flight of stairs. There is an anteroom before the office that contains filing cabinets, an El Ammo Bandito vending machine, a Vita-Chamber beside a dead Lancer Big Daddy slumped against the wall, and a Pneumo Tube. In the manager's office, Reed Wahl's audio diary "Implicating Porter" can be found on the computing table, and a Gravity Well Plasmid can be found sitting on the manager's desk, in front of a large exposed window overlooking the storage warehouse. Much of the office is looted and left in shambles, with the writings of Reed Wahl on the office's floor claiming his property. On the lower level, there is a Circus of Values vending machine and multiple shelves used to safely store the canisters. A turret guards the area and hall. In the backroom, employees were able to easily transfer canisters to and from the upper level for processing or Canister Retrieval for new arrivals or by request. The back end of the backroom is slightly flooded and the area is guarded and watched over by a Security camera and turret. New Discoveries New Weaponry *Upgraded Ion Laser (Intensity Upgrade) - Besides a dead Lancer in the Air-Tite Archives Lobby. *Shotgun - In a flooded basement past the reception, on the left. Single Use Events *There are two ADAM corpses. *Vacuum Bot - In New Accounts. *Sea Slug - In New Accounts. New Plasmids and Tonics (Found) *Booze Hound - In the Vacuum Bot in New Accounts. *Gravity Well - In the Administrators Office. *Natural Camouflage - In a Turret guarded room in the Warehouse. Audio Diaries #Charles Milton Porter - The Wager - Entrance hallway leading to the Archives. #Audrey Hesselgren - Prying Eyes - Near a Little Sister Vent in the lobby. #Brigid Tenenbaum - A Possible Solution - Basement Workshop. #Charles Milton Porter - How to Get Ahead - Canister Retrieval. #Charles Milton Porter - Thinker Input 1 - Lower Floor. #Nicholas Ingraham - Subversives in the Archives - Upper Floor, Archives Warehouse. #Reed Wahl - Implicating Porter - Operation Manager's Office. Gallery Air-TiteTubeAdConcept.jpg|''Concept art for the canister advertisement.'' Air-TiteAdConcept.jpg|''Concept art for the advertisement.'' AlternateAir-TiteAd.jpg|''Alternate version of the advertisement, without the octopus.'' UnusedAir-TiteAdConcept.jpg|''Concept art for an unused advertisement.'' UnusedAir-TiteAd.jpg|''Unused advertisement.'' Behind the Scenes * The neon business sign for Air-tite Archives was designed by Brandon Pham.Brandon Pham's Portfolio **Brandon Pham is also referenced on the specialized Pneumo Tubes found in Canister Retrieval as Pham Pnuemo. *The advertisements where designed by Devin st. Clair.Devin st. Clair Portfolio *Originally, Subject Sigma was to get Gravity Well by using retrieval codes to search through the Archives' stored contents.Unused Radio Messages: Minerva's Den *The song played in the Warehouse is "The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" by Cab Calloway. *The small storage room (containing 00 Buck) in the Basement Workshop doesn't seem to have any actual access way to it. *There are two small hooks likely used to hold an audio diary at one point, but now hangs empty. One of them is located beside the doorway to Canister Retrieval and the other in the Warehouse, above the Burst Cell near the stairs going down. *Due to a design flaw, one of the Pneumo Lines, in the room containing the audio diary Subversives in the Archives, is not connected to the wall. References Category:Minerva's Den (Level) Category:Rapture Businesses